. OK, this is definitely the nature edition of my posts here today only remotely related to personal finance.
It's a beautiful weather day here on the East Coast. I did a bit of yard work, but it was more like puttering outdoors. I'm waiting til 4 to go out and continue laying poultry wire on top of my raised beds to deter diggign chipmunks, which constantly tunnel in from the top. I started doing this a few days ago and while I could have used a staple gun to attach the fencing, I went low tech and just placed a few small rocks on the ends to keep it down.
The other garden project I just finished, more or less, was ripping out a full bed (about 4' x 20' feet long, or the depth of my house) of variegated salomon's seal. Yesterday morning I took a drive to a native plant nursery owned and operated by a woman from her home. I spent about $150 (!) on a bunch of plants. Namely, white wood aster, foamflower, wild geranium (not the annual kind) and a northern bush honeysuckle. Came home, changed into my workclothes, planted everything, then watered. It was exhausting and I don't think it should be? All the stuff I pulled I used my pitchfork and carried it about 50 feet or so to a brush pile.
The foamflower is exceptionally pretty when it blooms in spring.
Then I went to do my usual workout, and after taking 2 or 3 hours recovering from that, I actually went back to the garden and started mulching it.
Today I was sitting on my back patio for a while in the shade and watched an American painted lady butterfly ovipositing her eggs on the pearly everlasting I planted just last fall. This is a host plant for this butterfly. It's so cool to see things come full circle in nature.
I've also been watching the bluebird and cardinals introduce their fledglings to my window feeder. It's kind of a comical to see the babies begging for food while it's right there in front of them. They "beg" by tweeting and shaking their bodies.
This is a baby bluebird. The next generation.
Cardinals above.
Unfortunately, a very late hard freeze on May 19 (in the upper 20s) means that my giant mulberry tree won't have any berries this year. The berries normally ripen in July but I should be seeing the green berries now, and I'm not. The tree is fine, but it's a mega banquet for the birds so I will miss that.